Recipes etc that I create from my direct sales business (Do You Bake?)

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Lia Sophia...

Yesterday afternoon Lia Sophia (a direct sales jewelry company) closed it's "doors" after 28 years. Apparently without warning to the company reps with the exception of some top few. As the news broke on Facebook I was horrified to see so many DS reps from every other company out there offering to "help" displaced Lia reps by "sharing" their opportunity. Coat it in sugar all you want, you were not helping, you were being opportunistic vultures. Within 5 minutes of the announcement sharks were swimming in the blood pool. Offended by what I just said? Reflect on why. These women just lost businesses right before Christmas, sure some might be ready to hop on another train right away but I'll bet most need some time to process first.

There are things that reps do in DS that smacks of desperation, this is one of them. It happens all the time. Your friend just lost a 9-5, they are upset, and your offer to help is to ask them to buy a starter kit.... Their beloved DS business tanks, you ask them to buy a starter kit. My issue with scenario one, is that it takes $$ to start a DS business. Stop feeding the lie that the products sell themselves. When someone has nothing, asking them to cough up dough for something that might work out for them is uncool at best. Yes, I am well aware that there are women who started a DS biz with their last 200.00 and with some tenacity and a bit of luck they soared. We all know the real stats though, and that is the extremely high failure rate. That is a multifaceted problem though with lots of variables so we won't discuss it now. Scenario two is just as terrible. They just lost the company they put their passion, tears, and work into for sometimes years. Let them breathe! Others, just signed up and now likely have a really bad taste in their mouth since the company was allowing new rep signups the day before they shut down! Would you really want to invest in another starter kit for another company when you don't even know if you can get a refund on your now useless LS kit?

I was called angry for saying that a lot of reps look like vultures. Yes I am angry. I'm angry that I work twice as hard to overcome the bad name that shitty reps have given DS/MLM as a whole. Everyday I hear "oh I have heard of that company this woman I met hounded me for weeks" "I signed up under someone I met and then they basically didn't talk to me" "I got scammed" "I won't support my friends who have a home party business, thy are ripoffs and I hate them"

All of those quotes can be attributed to the vulture mentality that is seemingly inevitable in DS/MLM. These are people, not numbers. They have feelings, respect them dammit.

Would you ask someone on a date when they just buried their spouse? Would you tell a friend who miscarried to just get pregnant again? No? Then please stop hounding LS (or any other reps from a defunct biz) to join your opportunity. They will seek you out when they are ready.

Worse yet, was a competing jewelry company posting an event for a recruiting drive within an hour of the LS news breaking. I hear that it is a regular event and that is fine, however if you realize your timing sucks and you keep it going it reflects very poorly on the company.

Today is my one year with DYB and it has been incredible, I have built a large team and not once did I have to ask someone to join me. They came to me. I share the opportunity on my Facebook page, or in groups etc but I have never messaged, emailed, phoned etc someone and said "Join me". You don't have to be obnoxious to build a team.

If my post offends you please take a deep look inside and ask yourself why. I have not been known to sugar coat anything and I'm not going to excuse your poor behavior as you helping a displaced rep. You can coat a poop in chocolate but it's still poop.

Run your business ethically and you will be rewarded, it might take longer but is your integrity not worth that to you?